Jose Bautista Receives MLB Lifetime Pass

Today, Buzzfeed reported that Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista received a “MLB Lifetime Pass”, as you can see from Bautista’s Instagram feed.

The first question a lot of you might have is, “What in the world is a MLB Lifetime Pass?” Well, fear not, I’m here for you.

For die hard baseball fans like myself, it’s the golden ticket, the holy grail, or the arc of the covenant. To the average sports fan, its two free tickets to any major league ballpark. One for Jose and one for you or me, maybe.

Now you’re probably asking yourself, “Why Jose Bautista?”

Well, I can’t help you there. Buzzfeed comments on a number of players that have received the prestigious Pass, which included all of the Americans held hostage in Iran in 1979, and former scouts and umpires. Also holding Passes are some of the all-time greats – Bob Gibson, Roger Hornsby, Joe DiMaggio, and Rollie Fingers.

As you can see, I’m not sure why Bautista is now included in this list. For a player that has played on five different teams and never been held hostage, I’m a bit confused as to why he is receiving the Lifetime Pass. Over the course of his 10 year career, Bautista is a career .253 hitter with 192 home runs and 525 RBI’s – not exactly “Lifetime” numbers.

Nonetheless, Bautista is being honored for his “Long and Meritorious Service”. Congrats Joey Bats, maybe you can take me to a game one day.